Floodmarkers

Lystra, North Carolina. A fictional town full of very real people who survive the attack of Hurricane Hugo and then find their bearings in the aftermathoften in wild and hilarious ways.

The days leading up to the impending disaster are not at all unusualno portents of disaster, no signs of impending calamity. Bryce works his night shift at the hot dog factory, Isaac drives the bus to school, Evelyn attends a funeral. But when the electricity fails in the middle of the night on September 21, 1989, it marks the moment when everything will change: Hugo has arrived.

The storm builds, the wind whips by faster and faster, and interpersonal dramas, grudges, and rivalries are dredged up along with the flotsam and debris. Meanwhile, flood markers, painted red, track the height of the water from past rainstorms, and as the creek level rises higher than ever before, so do the emotions of the townspeople.

Alternating between weather forecasts and short stories, Floodmarkers is an exquisitely crafted day-in-the-life of a town. And as Nic Brown has us look bravely at the eye of the storm, he cleverly shows us that human nature can stir up a spectacular tempest all its own.


Nic Brown is the most talented new writer Ive come across. This first book of his is reminiscent of Sherwood Andersons Winesburg, Ohio in both its structure and its tragi-comedic view of a small town and the subsequent sufferings and joys of its inhabitants. Browns prose is beautiful and his empathy and insight into the human condition is breathtaking.
Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir! and The Extra Man

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Counterpoint; Original edition (June 19, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1582435065
ISBN-13: 978-1582435060